EA Sports FIFA Soccer 12

If you’re a soccer fan, you’ve probably lamented the lack of great soccer games for your Mac. (You might also call it football, but that’s a topic for another day.) EA Sports has addressed the first of these issues by finally bringing its famous soccer series to the Mac with FIFA Soccer 12 ($40). The spectacular 3-D title is available only as a digital download through distributor GameTree Mac—no Mac App Store support for this title—and is out now.

Even if you’ve played any of the past console FIFA titles, you’ll find that this edition brings a slew of new features and improvements to make the experience that much more realistic. The CPU characters are self-aware, and will play differently based on personal attributes. Defense and dribbling have been improved, as has the Player Impact Engine. If one of your players gets hurt, the injury may end up sticking with him throughout the season and his career, just like in real life. This and numerous other neat bits of detail are the reason we still care about the FIFA series so many years after its introduction.